The International Journal Of Engineering And Science (IJES) ||Volume||3 ||Issue|| 2||Pages|| 31-39||2014|| ISSN(e): 2319 – 1813 ISSN(p): 2319 – 1805
Eroding the Autonomy of Nigerian Local Governments: The Bane of Grass Root Development Mamidu Aruna Ishola1 , Adegboye Adegboyega2, & Solola Lawal Solanke3 Dept. Of Accounting1, Dept .Of Maths/Statistics/Computer & Information System2& Dept. Of Business Administration,3 Achievers University, Owo Ondo State, Nigeria1, 2 & 3
--------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT-------------------------------------------------This work took a cursory look at the Nigerian Local governments right from 1950, when Nigeria became a federal unit (that is North, West and East) to 1999 when the latest constitution came into being. The main aim of the research was to delve into the reasons why most Nigerian Local Governments remain grossly underdeveloped and not well catered for by their council functionaries using local governments in Ondo State of Nigeria as a case study. Questionnaires were sent out to collect data from the local governments. The data were x-rayed using Chi-square tool. It was discovered that the main reason for the poor performance of the local government which led to under-development of the grass roots was the non-autonomy of the local governments; since they were tied to the apron spring of the State government (who often times are their political godfathers). This abuse of the provisions in the Constitution, especially by the State government, has brought to the fore-front the question of local government autonomy. The work is divided into five sessions. They are: The Introduction; Theoretical and conceptual Frame work; The bane of Local Government Development; Methodological Approach and finally Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations.
KEYWORDS: Non-autonomous, Grossly underdeveloped, Nigerian Local governments, The grass roots and Apron spring ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------Date of Submission: 25 January 2014 Date of Acceptance: 10 February 2014 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------
I.
INTRODUCTION:
Shackleton et al.,(2002) [1] are of the opinion that people are now very much interested in the use of resources participation in the Natural and Allocated resources, management of their areas, and that in the last twenty years there had been a total shift in conservation and natural resources management away from the cumbersome state-centered control towards decentralization where local people have a say in control of the local resources. This can be seen as autonomy to the local areas. The Black‟s Law Dictionary defined Autonomy as the right (and condition) of power of self government. Montahue (1968) defines local government as “government by local bodies, freely elected which while subject to the supremacy of the national (or state) government are endowed in some respect with power, discretion and responsibility which they can exercise without control over their decisions by higher authority‟‟ The Guideline for Local Government Reform (FGN, 1976) defines local government as: ‘‟Government at local level exercised through representative councils established by law to exercise specific powers in defined areas. These powers should give the council substantial control over local affairs as well as the staff and institutional and financial power to initiate and direct the provision of services and to determine and implement projects so as to complement the activities of the state and federal government in their areas, and to ensure devolution of functions to these councils and through the active participation of the people and their traditional institutes , that local initiative and responses to local head and conditions are maximized”. All the above definitions could be summarized in Whalen (1976) when he captured the following characteristics as the main features of local government: [1] A given territory and population [2] An institutional structure for legislative, executive and administrative functions [3] A separate legal entity [4] A range of powers and functions authorized by delegation from the appropriate central or intermediate legislature and within the ambit of such delegation, autonomy including fiscal autonomy.
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